Something More For The Weekend

Good Friday, gentle folk. More street art to beautify your next couple days, straight from Clapton Passage, E5, Hackney. An Olympic borough. I like the carnivalesque feeling these pieces convey. Wonderful, wild, masked and just on the far edge of transgressive. Puts me in mind of this wonderful piece from The Daily Mail of all places about East End political street art hero Banksy's most iconic pieces recreated with real people. Check it out. 

Speaking of, The Olympics have turned out to be quite an exciting spectacle, especially the opening ceremony with Danny Boyle's sneaky plea to remember the great triumph of nationalized medical care that is the NHS. When the Democrats were campaigning hard to get 'Obamacare' through congress, the Republicans worked very hard to bring willing Tories over on all-expenses paid flights I'm sure (or at least claimed expenses) to whinge about the NHS that they probably never make use of anyway, but I've definitely had better experiences with the NHS and heard less horrific tales than the chilling stories I've heard from friends and family about medicine in America. 

And the complaints from my compatriots on twitter about 'leave it to the British to politicise the Olympics'. Politicisation of the Games began from at least 1988 when heavy corporate sponsorship was dragged in to resurrect a lurching moribund tradition. 

What do your weekends have in store for you all? I'm pretty busy and pretty excited. We've got lunches packed and we're off to brave this mildly, partially sunny weather to picnic in Haggerston Park and see the Games on the big screen. Yesterday, my son told me he was watching France vs. New Zealand in the Velodrome Cycling. 'I hope France wins,' he said. 'Why is that?' I asked. 'Because they have blue on their sleeve,' he replied, quite matter-of-factly. That's the kind of basis for an allegiance we need more of. Because they've got nice colours in their uniforms. 

I'm also immersing myself in nostalgia. I always get nostalgic around American accents and tonight, I'm seeing Savage in Limbo, by John Patrick Shanley, performed by The Planktonic Players in The Camden Eye. The play encompasses the stories of five disillusioned New Yorkers. Jaded New Yorkers. Stories about home. I can't wait. 

Taken from The Planktonic Players blog. 

And tomorrow, I sojourn west, to West London that is, to be interviewed by OnFm about my opinions on Team USA, The Olympics, and my ongoing struggle to become a successful writer in this vast sea of opportunities. If you happen to be travelling through West London between two and three, tune in to 101.4 on your FM dial and see what you make of my first appearance on the radio. 

Have a magnificent weekend, one and all.